The Comma

I was listening to a recording of Martin Luther King’s 1967 speech at the Riverside Church today, as part of my MLK day observance.  The speech, called something like “Beyond Vietnam,” was articulate, poetic and powerful.  In addition to all of his other brilliant insights, he said that the United States needed a “values revolution.”  Then he listed some of the values that he was calling our nation to embrace: ecumenism (the world is too small for religious divisiveness), a prizing of people over things (attacking the rampant materialism and greed of his time- which by the way looks rather tame in light of this century’s materialism and greed), and a deep commitment to non-violence as a way of life were just a few of the values that King invited us to embrace.

I found his call ironic in light of the way the term “values” has been co-opted by right wing conservatives in the last several years.  The first time I remember hearing the phrase “Values Voter” was in the 2004 presidential election.  It seemed as if every news reporter was saying it. “The ‘values voter’ might make the difference.” It was usually made along with the observation that conservative Christians would turn out in record numbers to vote “in defense of marriage” (translate: “against expanding marriage benefits to gay couples”).  In fact the phrase was used so often that the day after the country re-elected President Bush, I put a home-made bumper sticker on my truck.   “I voted my values” I said, and put the phrase on a rainbow background.  This was my way of saying there are other values than being against offering the protection and benefits of civil union to certain committed couples, or limiting the options of pregnant women, or supporting an illegal war.

Eventually the rain washed my homemade bumper sticker off my truck and use of the phrase of the values voter seemed to die down.  But now I am hearing it again.  I noticed it about a month ago, when folks were gearing up for the beginning of the primary campaign.  And I heard it again a few weeks ago when Larry Stickney, executive director of the Family Policy Institute (affiliated with Focus on the Family, where James Dobson commented on vitality of Value Voters the day after the Iowa caucuses) was a guest on KUOW.  I actually called the radio that day to object to the appropriation of the term.

The phrase values voter is such a discouragingly long way from the values revolution that King called for.  And the use of the phrase as a shorthand for a certain narrow, anti-gay, anti-choice voting pattern seems to me a real disservice to the word and to those of us who live out our deeply held, positive and affirming values every day. 

So I intend to redeem and  reclaim the phrase.  I have developed another bumper sticker for this year’s campaigns.  It reads:

 Values  Voter

Peace    Justice    Diversity

 Compassion   Sustainability   Love

It actually looks a little neater than that- but I can’t figure out how to adjust the font on this blog.  Anyway, I’m putting it on my truck.  Because I’m a values voter too.